The present invention relates to identification cards. In particular, the present invention relates to printers which are used to print identification cards.
Identification cards have found widespread use for carrying identification and security related information for an individual. It is often desirable to create an identification card using an identification card printer. In fact, identification card printers are often used to print large numbers of cards, such as drivers' licenses. Such identification card printers have typically connected to the parallel port of a computer which is used for receiving print data and a serial part which is used for receiving a second type of data such as smart card encoder information.
In general, identification card printers are viewed as output devices which convert a text or image file from a computer application to a visual image on media such as paper or a plastic card. However, identification card printers are actually a unique application because they are both input and output devices. Identification card printers convert an image/text from a host computer application into a visual image on a plastic card. Further, the printer provides full duplex communications to an application resident on the host computer for secure encoding of information from the host to a data media on the card e.g. magnetic stripe, proximity transceiver memory, smart card memory or a microcontroller, for example.
Full duplex communications from the printer over a connection requires the customization of a software driver to provide the necessary Application Programmers Interface (API) to the plethora of applications that may be required to construct a card. Each driver is customized to the printer, host operating system, applications, API's and communications hardware. This customization leads to a large number of drivers which represent a large investment for the printer manufacturer in driver development and a significant confusion for the user as they sort through which driver to use.
The nature of the communication techniques used to communicate with identification card printers has tended to limit their functionality and the efficiency with which they are used. Further, the communication techniques have resulted in a significant portion of the product development budget being consumed by software development required for driver compatibility.